Monday, May 6, 2013

1976 – Sam Bartus is a quiet man; exploding with ideas

Madison, Wis. (May 6, 1976) - Sam Bartus is not the sort of person
to go unnoticed in a crowd.

He wears silver
brocade and gold lame suits trimmed with sequins and rhinestones in the manner
of Liberace. He drives flashy sports cars or unusual limousines, such as his
gleaming black six-door Mercedes.

He's not one to
skimp on money. When he has it (and he has it) he goes first class. “I like to
stay in nice places and eat good food,” he says. “Money is for spending.”

He has a large
five-bedroom home in Madison
and an apartment in Wausau
and he spends part of each week at each place when he's not traveling. “But I
travel a lot,” he says.

He takes
chances, jumping into new ventures with an abandon that might terrify lesser
souls. “I like the challenge,” he notes. “The harder it is, the better”

Yet despite his
wardrobe (not a gray flannel suit in the lot) and his Cadillac’s (he buys two
convertibles every year) and his Mercedes with its refrigerator, television
set, bar, real leather and mahogany interior, Sam Bartus does not have a
flamboyant personality.

This stocky,
hard working sensitive man is rather quiet, soft spoken and private.

He was born 54
years ago in Mosinee, saw service with the army in World War II, earned the
Purple Heart and collected a few other medals, and wound up in Japan with the
occupational forces.

Back in the United States,
he started selling farm machinery and cars in Mosinee, later in Wausau, and got bitten by
the stock car racing bug. He entered his first race in 1951 and came away a
winner, which is some sort of a record, he says.

With just his
interest in stock car racing to spur him on, he built his first of several dirt
tracks near Wausau
the following year. The track wasn't too successful, so he opened a gravel pit
on the same site with his brother Ed, who still owns and runs it.

More interested
in cars than gravel, Sam cut loose from the gravel pit and opened a used car
garage in Wausau,
where he keeps his ever-changing collection of antique or unusual cars. Right
now he has a 1924 Cadillac limousine, a ‘49 Desoto, several other ancient
Cadillac’s and of course the Mercedes. “When I see a car I like, I buy it,” Sam
says.

The used car
business flourished and is still going strong, but Sam couldn't get stock car
racing out of his mind. He built several tracks around the state before he
tackled the Capital Super Speedway, a quarter million dollar venture near Oregon, which he jumped
into when his bank balance was only $10,000.

He started
building the track in the fall of 1968, was grounded for the winter, and went
back to work in April. “It was mission impossible,” he recalls. “The place was
a mess, but I told people we’d be open for business in May and we did.”

In order to get
the speedway on the road, he worked as much as 40 hours straight without
resting. “I hauled pipes and lumber and other materials from all over the
state,” he says.

That must have
been a picture to give passersby pause: Sam in his flashy brocade suits)
hauling rough materials on a two-wheeler behind his streamlined Eldorado
Cadillac convertible.

Now Sam's
hatched another idea. He's planning to hold rock festivals on a 500-acre plot
of land 75 miles north of Los Angeles.
He's never put on a rock festival before, but that's the challenge.

“I've observed
how other rock festivals were held,” he says. “And I didn't think they were
doing a good job.”

“A rock festival
was never held more than once in the same place. I plan to hold a successful
one and repeat it every so often in the same location.’

He tried to get
a place in Wisconsin
for the rock festival but permits “are hard to come by mostly because of the
past bad records of other rock festivals,” he says.

The prospect of
risking his current financial stability on a rock festival doesn’t seem to faze
Sam.

“I figured if I
can build a track without much money, I can go into rock too," he says
confidently.

His first rock
festival is scheduled for the Labor Day weekend, but all plans wait the
granting of the permit, which he expects this week. Then everything will fall
into place, Sam is confident.

In the meantime,
he's learning how to fly an airplane, spending two to three hours a week up in
the air with an instructor. He expects to have his license any day now.

Then, if anyone
wants to swap an airplane for his Mercedes, he's willing.

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Preserving the history of Midwest Auto Racing

So much racing history has been made through the years right here in the Midwest.

From the rich dirt ovals in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska to the paved short tracks in Minnesota and Wisconsin, some of the best drivers ever to get behind the wheel of a race car competed right here in the heartland.

We all have our own story to share about our favorite driver who thrilled us everytime they rolled onto the track or that one particular race that still stands out as the greatest they ever saw.

We'll go back in history, 10, 20, 30, 40, even 50 years ago (even more) and reminisce about what has made racing in the Midwest so special for us.